Biography

14 November 1951, San Diego, California, USA. While he had mastered both piano and trombone, it was an older brothers gift of an electric guitar that launched a vocational flight whereby an unprepossessing, bespectacled 14-year-old became a highly popular songwriter of US pop. In 1967, he formed his first group, the Weeds, who recorded some Beatles -inspired demos in Los Angeles before disbanding. During a subsequent seven-year search for a solo recording contract, Bishop worked as a tunesmith for a publishing house before securing a contract in 1976 via the patronage of Art Garfunkel. Indeed, his debut album for ABC Records, Careless, was much in the style of his champion. It also employed the cream of Los Angeles session players. Fortunately for ABC, it was nominated for a Grammy and, like the succeeding Bish, hovered in the lower reaches of the national Top 40 for several months. The spin-off singles (particularly On And On from Careless) also...